over now; so mother need not be uneasy. My love to you all.

Since I wrote you last we have had a pretty severe touch of the cholera in this place, but it has now left us entirely. There has been no new case for a week or more. It prevailed here about ten days, more severely than at any other place of the same size I have heard from. Most of the inhabitants, however, were panic-struck, and fled to the country. There were not more than two or three hundred left. There were about seventy cases, and about twenty-five or thirty deaths, besides a large number of deaths from steamboats. I did not leave town during its prevalence. I thought it was about as safe to stay here. I did not care much about it any how. I had none of the symptoms of the disease, and was never in better health in my life.

We are on the tip-toe to hear the result of the Presidential election-but I fear there is no chance of defeating Old Hickory. Louisiana has gone for Jackson; Kentucky, however, has redeemed herself, and gone for Clay by a large majority.

We are now waiting, with the utmost anxiety, to hear from your great State of New York. Pennsylvania, I fear, has gone for Jackson.

I received your letter a few days since, and am extremely sorry, I assure you, to hear that you have suffered so much from the effects of the cholera on business. I trust by the next time you write, your prospects will be better. Business here is, also, very dull at present.

Washington Irving passed down the other day. He stopped here a few hours. I was much pleased with him.

Write me again soon, and believe me

Your affectionate brother,

S. S. PRENTISS.

то HIS SISTER ABBY.

DEAR SISTER :

WASHINGTON CITY, February 8, 1883.

I wrote to mother a few days since, informing her of my arrival in this place, and promising, before I left, to write to you. It is with pleasure that I redeem my promise. I expect to leave in a day or two, though it is somewhat uncertain, inasmuch as I have not yet finally arranged the business on which I came. That business, as I mentioned in mother's letter, relates to some land-claims. I shall get away this week certainly for I am heartily tired of the place, and extremely anxious to return to Mississippi. It was a sacrifice to me to leave my business there, but I thought it would also be of great advantage to spend a few weeks at the Federal City, and become acquainted with the principal men from the different quarters of the Union.

And now, I suppose, you will wish to know how I am pleased with the Metropolis of the United States, and the people and things that are therein. On the whole, I have been extremely disappointed. Washington City is not half so handsome or pleasant a place as Portland. The houses are very ordinary, and scattered over so large an extent of ground, that it gives the city quite a desolate appearance as if there had been a great many fires in it. I was not, however, disappointed in the Capitol. It is a most magnificent edifice, and is the only building I have ever seen, which answers fully to the descrip tions of palaces that we read of in novels and story-books.

The President's House-or, as it is generally called, the White House is also a fine looking building; but is by no means so splendidly furnished as I expected. I had read so much about it in the papers, that I thought I should see an oriental palace-but on the contrary, most of the rooms are so plainly furnished as to appear rather desolate and gloomy.

I visited the White House in company with one of the Senators from Mississippi; and was introduced by him to the President, with whom we chatted about fifteen minutes. General Jackson is an old looking man, and answers very well

to the prints you see of him in the shops. I think him about as fit to be President of the United States as I am. But I ought not to talk so-for, for aught I know to the contrary, you and A. may, both of you, be "Jackson men," and then I have got myself into a pretty scrape!

I have seen nearly all the great men of the nation, and have become acquainted with some of them. Hereafter I shall have a much less opinion of great men. They are by no means so much superior to the rest of mankind, as they are apt to imagine. You have no idea how destitute of talent more than one-half the Members of Congress are; nine out of ten of your ordinary acquaintance are fully equal to them. There are, however, some truly great men here-among the foremost of whom are Webster, Clay, and Calhoun; I consider these the three most talented men in the nation.

I am glad to hear that W. will be married in the spring; I think it will increase his happiness. If he marries Angelina H——, he will marry an excellent girl, and I know of no one whom I should be more pleased with as a sister-in-law. She is an old friend of mine; you must remember me to her with my best respects. My love to you all.

Your affectionate brother,

SEARGENT.

TO HIS MOTHER.

VICKSBURG, March 80, 1888.

MY DEAR MOTHER:

More than the usual delay has occurred since I wrote last; but, in fact, I have just got home-having been detained more than twice as long as I expected. I did not leave Washington City till the first of March, although I was in daily expectation of leaving for three or four weeks before that time.

I believe I told you my business there. I was employed to argue a case in the Supreme Court, and for more than three weeks I attended the Court every day, expecting to get it tried.

I succeeded at last; and had the honor of addressing their Honors the Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States. I made a speech three or four hours long; and I suppose you will say, I have acquired a great deal of brass since I left home, when I tell you I was not at all abashed or alarmed in addressing so grave a set of men.*

Had I had any idea of being detained so long, you would have seen me at home; but I did not dare to leave Washington for fear the case would come on in my absence. I ought to have got back here more than a month ago, and the consequence is that my business has suffered materially. Having been very careless in the collection of my fees, I have lost a good deal the past winter by the failure of several individuals, who owed me considerable sums of money. I fear, therefore, I shall be compelled to disappoint you-but still more, myself-of my expected trip home this summer. I could sit down and cry about it, like a child, if it would do any good.

April 17.

I have just returned from attending court about forty miles in the interior, and have to start to-morrow to attend another still further distant. We have no stages here, and I go to all these courts on horseback. I think nothing of riding fifty miles a day. I ride a great deal, and have no doubt it has contributed much to my health, while use has made it a very pleasant exercise.

I hope you will not think hard of my having again disappointed you in the visit, which we all anticipated with so much pleasure. Indeed you must not; for that would double my regret, which is great enough already. It is not any want of affection for you all, but the desire I feel to assist my brothers and sisters, that has induced me to forego, for another year, the delight of coming home. And I well recollect that one of the

"When young in years and young as a lawyer, he appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States, and his pleadings, in spite of his youthful fire and highly-wrought fancy, were so happily fortified by deep reading and deep thought, as to instantly attract the notice of Chief Justice Marshall, and call forth from that master-mind involuntary praise."-T. B. Thorpe's Reminiscences, Whig Review, 1851.

last injunctions of my dear father, just before his death, was that I should assist the children; and he seemed to have a confidence that I should, one day, be able to do so. My love to you all, and don't forget to write often.

I have just returned from attending the Circuit. I have been gone ever since I wrote you last, and have had a pretty rough time of it. I have been east of Pearl River. I travel entirely on horseback, and have had to swim on my horse, over creeks and bayous that would astonish your northern people, whose roads are all turnpiked. Beyond Pearl River, I had to ride, and repeatedly to swim, through a swamp four miles in extent, in which the water was all the time up to the horse's belly. What do you think of that for a lawyer's life? It would kill your New York cockneys in a week. To these hard rides 1 attribute, as much as to any other cause, the excellent health which I have always enjoyed.

The cholera has appeared again in New Orleans, and all along the Mississippi. The boats are full of it, and we have had several cases here. I feel, however, no apprehension on the subject. I hope you will not have it again in New York, as it bore so hardly on you last year.

Mr. Huston will be in New York by the time this letter reaches there. He passed up the river the other day; I intended to have written you by him, but did not see him when he passed here. I wish you would find him out, and he can tell you all about me.

Your affectionate brother,

SEARGENT.